Quote Originally Posted by CloudtheBoa View Post
From what I've read, females are pretty docile. Males can be absolute beasts during breeding season, their attacks can require an emergency room and dozens of stitches. They will rip and tear in a combat display, but I'm not sure if they do that without females around, or if the sex of the keeper matters.


I would recommend getting a baby if you've never owned a giant before. I also really caution against jumping straight into retics after only having bps, and going and spending some time with some adult retics in person is definitely a good idea! Handling them and seeing the work required just to hold them may change your mind...keep in mind you should have one person for every 3' above 8'-10' for safe handling. You simply cannot handle the average mainland by yourself if you want to do it safely. People have died from retics.


Females can sometimes have partho clutches, which is a form of asexual reproduction, but it is very rare. Becoming eggbound can still happen even with slugs, but I'm not sure how common that is in retics. Not cycling them should help reduce the chances of that happening.


My main error is be careful about handling! Retics can sometimes be easy to spook, especially when they're smaller. Always keep physical contact with your retic, or you could spook them. I once let my female retic get lost in thought sniffing the air, and when I slowly went up to her to let her know I was there to pick her up, she whipped her head around to stare at my hand. She slowly puffed up with air, rose like a cobra and struck several times, then crawled sideways still with her head in the air. Once she got past me she lowered her head and slowly crawled away. I was able to pick her up at this point, while she slowly huffed the air out. She was only about 4'-4.5' at the time, so I wasn't in any danger, but I do not want her to do that as an adult! I always make sure to touch her every few seconds or minutes now. XD


I would make Length+Width at minimum equal to or greater than the snake's length, and climbing is highly appreciated as these guys are adept climbers. Some owners convert whole rooms or parts/whole basements into their giant constrictor enclosures. I don't think the average 4'x2'x2' or 6'x2'x2' is adequate for the average sized adult, and even an 8'x4' can be kinda small for a larger adult. I know many disagree with me, but I feel like we owe them at least a bare minimum for comfort.


They can be messy as mentioned, I got lucky with my girl and she hardly makes a mess at all. She always neatly pees and poops so it's easy to clean up, and she's only 9' so she doesn't make a substantial mess yet. I just shovel out the area where she excreted and replace the bedding.





That probably explains it, mice don't pack nearly the same growth potential as rats (for weaned rat and above). Plus, a lot of people feed their juvenile retics every 4-5 days...

I fed my girl pretty conservatively as well, she started out on rat pups every 2 weeks, and then smalls weekly, and for a period was eating multiple small rats weekly, then once she went to larges I put her back to a 2 week schedule, and 2 weeks is about what she eats now that she's eating colossal and 1 lb rabbits. She'll be 4 in October, but fell behind in growth due to some health issues likely related to the house we used to live in. She's already gained noticeable weight, and hopefully will hit a growth spurt again! She's always grown in random spurts, though...even if I fed as much as 25-30% of her weight weekly, she still would only grow at her own pace.

She was maybe 4.5' at a year, 7' at 2, 8.5' at around 3, and I'm guessing she's somewhere around 9' by now surely...haven't actually attempted to measure her in a long time though. Her last record was 7'8" last January, but I'm pretty sure I measured her after that, just forgot to record it, and she has definitely grown a LOT since then. -.-
Interesting ... I thought the theory of rats being more nutritional than mice had been debunked ??

Im sure some scientific paper that showed they were practical identical nutrition-wise - may be mistaken ..


So, of course , the rats are more convenient for bigger appetites as its easier to feed one big rat instead of 6 large mice or whatever ..


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